The scale of Sri Lanka’s child sex tourism industry has reached such worrying proportions that the authorities should take action immediately, UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Thursday, noting that some impoverished parents are being forced to “sell” their children. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, veteran member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Renate Winter, said that the scourge was “very widespread”, particularly in the north of the country. 

Ms. Winter also commented on the potential “huge impact” of the UN’s budget crisis which could see the committee – one of 10 human rights treaty bodies whose experts work on a voluntary basis – struggle to hold its next hearing with Member States in September.